Connections Hints Today: No Spoilers

What the Colors Mean

YellowThe most straightforward category — usually a literal grouping.

GreenA little less obvious, often a synonym set.

BlueUsually leans on trivia or a less common meaning.

PurpleWordplay, double meanings, or a twist that isn't obvious until you see it.

NYT Connections editor Wyna Liu has noted that blue and green categories tend to be the trivia-heaviest — things like file extensions or a specific synonym set — while purple is where the puzzle usually hides a pun or a category that reads as something else entirely until the pattern clicks.

How to Use These Hints Without Spoiling It for Yourself

Start with just the hint on the category you're most stuck on — don't open the group name unless the hint alone doesn't get you there. If you're close but not sure of the exact words, the group name is usually enough to let you finish the category yourself. Save "Words" for when you want to check a guess or you're genuinely out of ideas.

Lock in your most confident group first. Whichever category you're most sure about — hint or no hint — guess that one before touching your least confident one. You only get four mistakes, so spend them wisely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do these hints give away the answer?

Not unless you open the third stage. The hint alone is meant to nudge you toward the category without naming it.

What's the difference between this page and your full answers page?

Connections Answers Today shows the full solved grid right away. This page is for people who want to solve it themselves with optional nudges.

Why is the purple category always the hardest?

Purple categories usually involve wordplay or a meaning that only becomes obvious once you already suspect it — that makes them resistant to guessing by elimination the way yellow and green often are.

What happens after four mistakes?

The puzzle ends and reveals the remaining groups — there's no way to keep guessing past four wrong answers.

How we keep this accurate

Hints, group names, and words are pulled from the same verified daily feed as our full answer page, so the two pages never contradict each other.
Hints are written fresh each day based on that day's actual categories — not a reused template.

More NYT-Style Puzzles

For the full solved grid instead of hints, see Connections Answers Today. Connections Unlimited lets you replay similar puzzles with no daily limit, and Harmonies Answers Today uses the same grouping format with a music theme. If you're working through the rest of today's NYT puzzles, Letter Boxed Answer Today and NYT Spelling Bee Answer are worth checking too.